The toothbrushes available on the market generally have a construction such that a gripping part is flat and is provided at one terminal side of a flat handle shaped like a bar with a brush base supporting planted bristles. When a man in normal health elects to brush his teeth, he is enabled to clean his teeth even to the farthest edges thereof by taking loose hold of the handle and moving the bristles up and down while keeping them in light contact therewith. With aged persons and physically handicapped persons, however, there are times when the handle cannot be gripped with sufficient force and the toothbrush will be freely manipulated only with difficulty because these persons have weak gripping power and are unable to bend their fingers or hands sufficiently. Even for persons in normal health, it is extremely difficult to brush their teeth cleanly within the recesses because the efforts call for a fairly delicate manipulation. Under the circumstances, toothbrushes adapted to facilitate the action of brushing teeth by allowing adjustment of the angle formed between a handle and a brush base have been disclosed as in JUM-A-02-50,225 and JUM-A-04-54,239.
The toothbrush disclosed in JUM-A-02-50,225, for example, provides a brush base 103 supporting planted bristles 102 on one terminal side of a handle 101 and forms part of the handle 101 with a shape-memory resin 104 and, therefore, permits the bristles 102 to be turned in an arbitrarily selected direction by heating the shape-memory resin 104 of the handle 101 to a prescribed temperature thereby imparting flexibility to the shape-memory resin 104, setting the brush base 103 at an arbitrary angle relative to the axial line of the handle 101, and then fixing the shape-memory resin 104 by cooling as illustrated in FIG. 10 (a) and FIG. 10(b).
Then, the toothbrush disclosed in JUM-A-04-54,239 is enabled to acquire the same function and effect as the toothbrush mentioned above by providing a handle 111 on one terminal side thereof with a brush base 113 supporting planted bristles 112 and forming the handle 111 with a shape-memory resin as illustrated in FIG. 11(a)-FIG. (d).
In the case of such items of Western tableware as a spoon, a fork, and a knife which are used during a meal as in the case of a toothbrush, aged persons and physically handicapped persons at times experience difficulty in using the Western tableware at will because they have weak gripping power and are unable to bend their fingers or hands sufficiently.
The Western tableware disclosed in JP-B-05-82,202, for example, forms a handle 121 of a spoon 120 with a shape-memory resin having a transition zone temperature above normal room temperature and, therefore, enables the handle 121 to assume easily a shape convenient for use as occasion demands by imparting this shape to the handle 121 while holding this handle 121 at a temperature higher than the transition zone temperature and thereafter transferring the handle 121 to a place held at normal room temperature thereby setting the handle 121 in the newly assumed shape as illustrated in FIG. 12(a) and FIG. 12(b). Such conventional toothbrushes as disclosed in JUM-A-02-50,225 and JUM-A-04-54,239 are capable of coping with changes in their conditions of use due to delicate variations in the arrangement of teeth among different users by arbitrarily altering relative difference in levels, angle, and twist between the handles 101 and 111 on the one part and the bristles 103 and 113 on the other hand by dint of the disposition of the shape-memory resin to change shape easily to any arbitrary pattern and, at the same time, retain the newly assumed shape intact. The conventional Western tableware which is disclosed in JP-A-05-82,202 can be used even by a physically handicapped person having no free control of hand by enabling this user by wrapping the handle 121 around the hand or nipping it between adjacent fingers in conformity with the contour of the hand by virtue of the disposition of the shape-memory resin to memorize an imparted shape.
The handles 101, 111, and 121 mentioned above, however, cannot cope with delicate changes in the conditions of grip due to the degrees to which the users' fingers and hands are allowed to bend. The condition of grip as well as the size of hand and the magnitude of gripping force allows for infinite variety. Even when the handles 101, 111, and 121 are fabricated from the viewpoint mentioned above, all attempts at enabling the handles 101, 111, and 121 manufactured in specific sizes and shapes to be accepted indiscriminately by the general public inevitably have their limits. When the handles 101, 111, and 121 fail to offer sufficient grip owing to a change in the condition of grip, thereof, the grip must be complemented as by binding them to the users' hands with a cord or a rubber band.
In the light of this true state of prior art, the present invention has for an object thereof the provision of a grip member which enables a user to cope readily with a delicate change in the condition of his grip and enjoy convenience of control and a toothbrush and Western tableware using the grip member.